End of week one

This is my street. Unreal.

So school has officially started and it is the end of week one for me. This week did not go by as fast as the weeks usually do at SBCC, because of all the new impressions, classes and all the new students you meet. These 4 days feels like 3 weeks to me! But it's fun, I like the first week of school because of all the new people you meet.

All of my classes are great and it feels really good to be back at work. I have met with almost all of the other bloggers and they are all about to get started on their blogs! It feels really good to see everyone again. I am truly grateful for this internship that I've got, I really love it.

my frittata

And other than all of the school related stuff, I've settled in at home in my room but I am doing some things a little bit different this semester! During my time in SB I have been terrible in the kitchen. I haven't been cooking AT ALL! Which results in a lot of eating out, that leads to spending a lot of money. So this semester I have decided to do all of my cooking at home. Well, most of it anyways. It's going great! A few nights ago I made frittata with turkey, shrimp, tomatoes and spinach and it was delicious! And so easy to make. I am proud :)



Oh, and this weekend we will probably hang a lot DT around the Arlington Theatre to try and spot some of the movie stars (starstruck?) and mingle with the crowd. You haven't missed that the Santa Barbara Film Festival is starting today right?
I think it will be a crazy weekend DT since school started and all. It will be fun!

And next weekend we are taking the car to IKEA to get some stuff for the apartment. I will eat meatballs for sure!

Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm Back!

Hi everyone!

I'm back! Back in the U.S., back in Santa Barbara, back in school and now finally back at my desk working as an intern at SBCC's Marketing Department.
And for all you new readers;

I'm Malena. 28 years old, Swedish, Marketing major, and this is my 5th semester at SBCC.
Through my internship I was a part of building these student blogs and I am also (obviously) blogging myself, and loving it! So welcome back to all my readers, and a big welcome to all the new ones! Hope you all had an awesome winter break. I did.

First day of spring semester, gorgeous day.

Some big news that I have to share with you is that this will be my very last semester at SBCC and also my last months living in California. Just recently, I decided I want to move back to Sweden after this semester. Although leaving Santa Barbara will be the absolute hardest thing that I will have to do, I feel very excited about the next stage in my life back home, where I'm close to my family and friends.

Beautiful winter wonderland, my hometown Vasteras

Don't worry though, I will make the most of my time this spring and I already have a NY trip booked in February (to visit one of my closest friends who's studying there this semester) and a ticket to Coachella in April. I'm sure I will take a few trips down to LA and up to SF as well, and I am confident that this will be the best semester yet!

Just to mention a few things about my break in Sweden; I celebrated Christmas with my amazing family, New Years with great friends, I worked in retail at MQ (where I was store manager before I moved here) I spent time with all my best friends, I played in the snow, I had many breakfast dates at Espresso House and I spent all my spare time with a very special someone.

one of many scones breakfasts 

And to the classes I'm taking now: Since I'm a marketing major, I already have all the required marketing classes but I decided to refresh my memory a little bit so I'm taking 2 marketing classes this semester; Public Relations and Relationship Selling. I am excited about both, I think they will be very useful!
Other than those I'm taking english 111 and environmental studies with lab.

Please let me know if there's anything in particular that you want me to blog about or if you have any questions at all!

Malena

To Be Continued

View over La Playa stadium this morning

I made it through the weekend before finals week and I am at work right now. The weekend was all about studying and resting. The doctor gave me some medecine that I have been taking this weekend and the ironic part is that those pills make me forgetful. That's a proven side effect. Isn't that great the one weekend when you need to study the most.
Well, the good news is that I'm feeling a little bit better, although I forget a lot of words and can't remember half of everything I read this weekend..

SF this summer.

But everyone; We made it through fall semester! It sure was a good one. I have so many great memories from this summer, San Diego, San Francisco, my birthday, LA, all the friends we have had visiting us, my sisters stay, all the dinners we've had, all the great parties, Halloween, Thanksgiving and so on..I could go on forever.

SF this summer.

I am ready for Sweden now though. I love this place with all my heart but nothing's like Sweden. It's my home and its where my family all super close friends are. And Christmas in Sweden is the best! It's snowing a lot there now, so I am excited to drink hot chocolate in front of our fireplace, get cozy on the couch under a blanket, listen to swedish Christmas music and eat all the Christmas candy. I love it! And it will be good for me to come home, and de-stress.

So this will be my last post for this year! Feels like it was yesterday I sat here by my desk and planned all the stuff around creating these student blogs. It has been so much fun, this is what I love doing. I am sure I will find a job that relates to social media in the future, because it really is something I enjoy doing.

Thank you for reading my posts, for commenting and for keeping me motivated this semester. I will be back in SB in mid January and I will continue blogging then.
Spring 2014 will be awesome, I'll see you all then!

Happy Holidays, Take Care and be Thankful for your loved ones!

Easy now.

freezing and feeling a bit bad for myself.

So an update on my health; I am not just imagining the symptoms that I felt, there is actually something going on inside my body that I feel like I have no control over. I went to the health center and I went to urgent care this week. I am choosing not to go in to detail about my condition but hopefully I'll be fine. Right now I just feel a bit low.

I know that stress causes health issues, and even though I haven't been feeling stressed mentally, my body sure is stressed out to a point I didn't know was possible. I need to learn how to de-stress and relax. I can't do everything and it's ok to call in sick every once in awhile when you're not feeling well and need a break. I need one now, that's proven. This weekend will be all about taking it easy, read, watch the christmas parade on state street on Friday night and try to go out for some walks. And of course, mentally prepare myself for finals.

I miss working out, I miss feeling focused. There is one thing you always learn when you loose your health, and that's the fact that you need to appreciate it when you have it. Don't take your health for granted.

my pretty pretty SB

I had my last lectures today and it feels so strange! Knowing that you will never be sitting in that classroom with those people again? It is sad actually. Because it has been a part of my everyday life for 16 weeks.
I have really enjoyed all of my classes this semester.

Well, not much has happened since my last post so I will keep on resting, and cross your fingers that i will be the same old me in no time! Thank you SBCC Health Care for taking my symptoms seriously!

And btw, I am know that I am so late on this one, but the app Bitstrips is hilarious!

"Listen to your body"

SB pier Saturday night

I have to be honest, I am not feeling very well. I have been having headaches, my heart is raising, I feel like I have trouble breathing, I am dizzy and I am extreeemly tired. Is it stress? Probably, but I can't know for sure, so my caring supervisor just said that I need to go to the health center because it is important to listen to my body, so I will do that!

Skyping with my mom and dad,
Thanksgiving night.

The health center at SBCC is located in the Student Services building on east campus and the staff is great! I have been there more than once to get medicine when I have been sick and their help is included in my insurance I get from SBCC.


Other than my physical condition, everything is great. I am getting excited about my flight back to Sweden but at the same time I feel a bit sad to leave SB. I can't get over the fact that all the best things happen at the end of every semester! So I am always bummed when I leave. But I know that I will have a great time seeing friends and family back home too, so I am all good.

At the Thanksgiving dinner

This long weekend was very, very, veeery long. Starting Wednedsay night with Hunger Games 2 which was awesome, I loved it and I can't wait for number 3! Then came Thursday and Turkey Day.
We had the most amazing dinner at the French Table, (and our graphic designer Melanie was so clever when she said that me and my friends weren't celebrating either Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving, but "Frenchgiving"). Haha, very funny.
Anyways, it was delicious, and our waiter was hilarious.

Pumpkin soup

Pumpkin pie

Traditional Thanksgiving meal

The rest of the weekend was very laid-back I have to say. I have been sleeping, napping, resting, and trying to eat iron rich food to get my focus back, but nothing really helps. I even stopped drinking coffee and I can really feel that, my body feels so heavy and I have a slight headache constantly.
I really hope I can figure out what I need to get the energized me back! I need it, for sure.

Fun fact; Me and Louise went to a christmas party last night at a friends house and one of the guests was the guy who holds the world record in longest motorcycle jump, 425 feet. That's awesome. We had some wine and chatted for a few hours before we went home and I fell asleep around 10 pm. Told you I'm tired..

2 weeks!

2 weeks left! One week of lectures! What happened? Seriously?
This semester just started and then it ended. And I am off to Sweden soon to see my family. I am sooo excited! Especially since I have a nephew who turned one in November, so I can't wait to see him and hug him for hours!

Sunrise at 6 am, west campus

I feel like this semester is probably the best one yet. They just keep getting better and better. I know a lot of people who say that actually. I guess it has to do with the fact that you feel more at home here for every semester that passes. You meet more friends, you know the city super well, the city knows you super well. Haha. It is funny how that happens, one day you just wake up and feel like you belong. I know I belong here, if not in Santa Barbara then California for sure.

I just found out some great news btw. One of my closest friends will spend one semester in NY to study! I got super excited, because I know what it will do to her. She will open up to a new world she never knew existed.
One of my absolute favorite quotes is: Life begins at the end of your comfort zone." It is so true. If you never challenge yourself, you will never grow! We all know that, because we all had that amazing feeling when we finished something that we were nervous, or even scared about. It's awesome.

Well, this Wednesday is a great day. I have a meeting with a few of the bloggers, and I'm excited about that. I like seeing them and just talk for a while. And this is probably the last one we will have time for!
Later today, we're heading down to Metro 4 to see Hunger Games 2, like I mentioned in my previous post.

And I have some other exciting, kind of random news. One of my very good friends from Sweden has a friend who lives in SB who I happened to run in to a few months back. He is going to teach me how to ride a motocross! I am way beyond excited about that, since I have a thing for motocross.
My friend in Sweden is an amazing fmx rider who travels the world to do shows, and I was actually fortunate enough to go with him to one of them, which was in London 2011. Great times.
I'll let you guys know how my riding goes, if I turn out to be a natural or not...

Have a wonderful weekend and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Thanksgiving/Friendsgiving week

This is a busy time for us students at SBCC, since it is only 3 weeks left of this semester. Actually just 2 weeks of lectures, since the last week is all about the finals.
I am kind of lucky this semester because I only have 2 in class finals; Philosophy, 100 question scantron and History, 50 question scantron plus bluebook written assignments. In my english 110 class, I need to revise one of my former essays and turn it in by the end of finals week. And in yoga, there's one essay about my fitness improvements that is due the week before finals. So it is not to bad actually!

This week is Thanksgiving week, so we have Thursday off! Many of the American students are leaving SB to go celebrate with their families, and us international students gather up with friends and make our own Thanksgiving celebration, which we prefer to call Friendsgiving, isn't that a cute name. This year we're going to dinner at The French Table on E Anapamu. I love that restaurant, it is super cozy. They will have a Thanksgiving menu in a "candle light atmosphere" as they choose to call it. I'm excited!

And since we have Thursday off and don't have to study, me and my wonderful friends Louise and Kirstine are going to see the new Hunger Games movie on Wednesday night. I love the first one I have probably seen it about 6 times or something, so I can't wait to see the second one.
Movie theaters are different here than back in Sweden too. The seats are way more comfortable, they are bigger, and you get to choose your own seat as you walk in. (In Sweden, you get reserved seats)

At the gym.

This past week was a good one, I got a lot of things done and I had plenty of time doing what I love the most, Work Out! Since I partnered up with Kirstine who also works out at 24 hour fitness, I've really stepped up in building more muscles. We are doing Body pump, Body Combat and Bootcamp classes and I am pretty much sore in my muscles every single day, and I love it! My body feels great.
We did measurements in my yoga class this morning too and omg, I am so much stronger now than in the beginning of the semester! And my balance improved from below standard to above standard. That's awesome.

Louise and the car.

Oh, and some good news for us; we have a car now! We got to take care of Louises friend Anas car. She is out traveling the world and won't be back until April so we are super lucky!

Have a great week everyone, and don't forget to be grateful!